Ukraine – some thoughts on who is playing for what.

A few quick thoughts to offer on who might be playing for what in Ukraine.

First, most popular uprisings or protests get nowhere unless they get considerable outside help. For example Qatar supplied much of the help in the Arab Spring. In the Ukraine, it has been quite clear for a while now that the US has been in favour of a change of regime from pro-Russian to pro-Free market and agressively Ukrainain ethinc-nationalist. Witness that well known US peacenik Senator john McCain’s trip last December to Kiev where he made a point of being photographed several times with Oleh Tyahnybok the leader of Svoboda party, one of the three opposition leaders the US likes. McCain spoke to a crowd saying how the Ukraine would be better in Europe and Europe would be better with the Ukraine. That McCain should speak about Ukraine in terms of joining Europe rather than as becoming a friend or ally of America, struck me at the time as interesting. Particularly because the US regime’s frustration with what it sees as Europe’s reluctance to share the US’s enthusiasm and policy has been painfully evident.

A frustration made rather public in thte suave “F*kc the EU” comment made by the US State Department’s Victoria Nuland when she was speaking to US ambassador to Ukraine, Jeffrey Pyatt. Ms Nuland was … ‘underlining’ perhaps, the US State Department’s ‘desire’ to see Mr Yatsenyuk become the new power in Ukraine. According to Ms Newland “Yats [Yatsenyuk] is the guy who’s got the economic experience, the governing experience.” Aparently, and rather unsurprisingly, “Yat’s” ’economic experience’ rather than, let’s say, his diplomatic skills or his no doubt deep concern for the human rights of other ethinic groups (like Jews for example) was upper most in Ms Newland’s mind.

And now Yats is the new US backed leader. I say US backed rather than Western backed advisedly because I think what is unfolding in Ukraine is not a simply the West versus Russia.

The US – or at least the Hawks in the US, like McCain, are happy to see Ukraine detached from direct Russian control and for it to split East/West – as I think it likely it will. Such a split will not be clean or free of violence. It will therefore present the opportunity to create a thorn in Russia’s side. In the immediate it presents problems for Russian gas exports to Europe. It doesn’t stop them, of course. There is still Nord Stream running direct into Germany. And South stream is still coming along. But it will dent Russian export profits and worry European markets and governments.

But the benefits for America – at least in the minds of its hawks, don’t stop there.

Nothing hurt Pentagon funding like the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the East/West German split. What size of military pork barrel might a new East West Ukraine split deliver? I think the Pentagon is delighted. I doubt AMerica will be as nakedly provocative as to built big new militray bases in a new West Ukraine. Though some will certainly think it only right and proper. But I would be amazed if they don’t create a few speical forces and intelligence sites – which will need defending!

And of course the Pentagon’s pleasure is Europe’s pain. Europe is split on Ukraine. Germany is not happy to anger Russia. Merkel has conspicuously spent at least as much time on the phone with Putin as with Obama. Being the European terminus of the Nord Stream gas pipeline into Europe means Germany has along term intersts in being friendly with Russia. And Germany has historically always looked East in its foreign policy. While France has historically always looked South and Britain always West. On top of which France has, since Syria, become America’s new best War-buddy. The reasons for which I wrote about in Syria – Cui Bono.

So by provoking a “f*ck the EU” split in Ukraine America weakens any pesky European solidarity. Nothing like dividing your allies against each other to maintain control over them. Not only does a split in Ukraine cause welcome frcition between the two pillars of the European project, Berlin and Paris, it is also marvelously mischievous because if there is one thing the EU is very sensitive and woried about at the moment it is separatist movements. The EU does not like the idea of its constituent nations begining to break apart into even more bickering and all-too-democratic factions. Centralization of decision making is what Brussels wants not nationalist democracies. Spain fears anything that gives legitimacy to Catalonian separatism. The EU and the Conservative Government in Westminster have made it very clear they are neither of them happy about Scotland away from the UK and France is nervous about a possible Belgian break up.

Which makes the present US championing of Ukrainian regime change, raising as it does separatist and ethnic arguments, very difficult fo the EU. Brussels doesn’t want to be seen as turning its back on the Ukrainian’s who want to be in Europe and which the US and the global media have been quick to call ‘Pro-democracy’. Yet it if they join in with American talk about ‘the right to self determination’ etc they leave themselves looking like utter hypocrites.

Not only that but in an East West split a great deal of what wealth there is in the Ukraine would stay with Russia while Europe and Britain , would get another large group of very poor people with an utterly bankrupt government looking for help, bail out and jobs. What wonderful social fears and tensions would erupt within a year, and be whipped up to fever pitch by the lovely, popular European and British press shrieking about how hundreds of thousands of poor Ukrainians were now going to join the flood of Romanians all of whom are about to move into our towns and take our jobs while claiming benefits for their 27 children. Somewhere in the US State department they are laughing with joy.

The US has already begun to back peddle on any idea that America would provide vast cash hand outs, prefering instead that Europe sort something out with the oh-so-lovely IMF. Europe would have a huge potential drain on its already unstable finances to say nothing of the carnage already happening at UniCredit and some of the Austrian banks exposed to Ukrainain debts. A poor Ukraine, promised it was going to be able to ‘join Europe’ and get help and iPads, would do nothing to help political stability and strength in Europe.

And what of Russia? Is this is KO? I don’t think so. Putin has consistently out-played the Obama regime. If I were Putin I would not rush too many troops in to Ukraine to secure the speical forces units he has there. I would certainly move them up and move them in to key places. But I would also hope, and try to help along, any useful idiot in Ukraine who felt like shooting any Russian soldier or Russian speaking civilian. And then I would storm in to ‘protect’ vital interests and innocent civilians and to “oppose terrorism”. I would secure the best parts of Ukraine put my hand firmly on the gas tap, and leave the rest for Europe to cope with.

In this scenario American hawks do best, Russia and its military can hope to make a good result from a seemingly bad situation and Europe comes out weakened and divided.

This is, obviulsy, just one way of seeing a very complex situation and I don’t offer it as a rival to other considerations but rather as a compliment to them. I think, as always, it’s not about championing freedom. It always about power and competition between the large powers. in which the little countries are pieces to be moved about and manipulated wherever possible.

152 Responses to Ukraine – some thoughts on who is playing for what.

I guess there will be a bombing of russians in ukraine. Perpetuated by putin as a prelim to taking what they want. If not then some other pretext will be arranged. All the players in this drama have nothing to be proud of.
It is noticeable how differently the MSM reports the Egyptian coup and the Ukrainian coup.

I’m currently living in Poland, and have to admit that as bad as the former president-on-the-run was (of Ukraine), I just wish the US had found some other place to muck up. There really was no need for this, and ultimately the people of Ukraine will pay the price.

@desmond: the Russians did not initiate this. I think their response so far has been more than reasonable (think Black Sea fleet base). Check some other non-western-MSM sites for a better picture. Try for example: Dmitry Orlov @ http://cluborlov.blogspot.com/…

“I think, as always, it’s not about championing freedom. It always about power and competition between the large powers. in which the little countries are pieces to be moved about and manipulated wherever possible.”

Golem XIV,

Correct.

All this is about a bunch of criminals or to give them their official name “far right neo-conservatives”, they are just fighting amongst themselves for a bigger share of the planetary spoils and a higher degree of power.in the coming neo-conservative NWO that they have planned for ALL of mankind!!!. Please remember who rules Russia, neo-conservative russian oligarchs, just the same as those who rule in the USA/UK.

“Washington wants missile bases in Ukraine in order to degrade Russia’s nuclear deterrent, thus reducing Russia’s ability to resist US hegemony. Only three countries stand in the way of Washington’s hegemony over the world, Russia, China, and Iran.”

Geographically a split is not at all “tidy” with Crimea, a “must” for Russia to hold on to, being semi-detached.
If someone finds a way to detach the “western” part of Ukraine to enable it to apply for EU membership, then we will be paying – and forever I think. This is utter madness from every point of view, and it won’t end with handshakes all round. There will be bitterness for many years to come with the “east Ukrainians” remembering how the “westies” welcomed the Nazis and joined the Wehrmacht.

“The overthrown president, who has since fled to Russia, was accused of mass murder, and the new government demanded his extradition (a dumb move, since Russia’s constitution forbids extradition). But there are serious questions about this interpretation of events: the special forces were never issued rifles and were never ordered to open fire on the protesters; there were quite a few special forces members themselves among those killed; the killings were carried out in such a manner as to incite rather than quell protest, by targeting women, bystanders and those assisting the wounded. The killings were followed by a professionally orchestrated public relations campaign, complete with a catchy name—“Heaven’s Hundred” (“Небесная сотня”)—complete with candlelight vigils, rapid clean-up and laying of wreaths at the scene of the crime and so on.”

Orlov also had an update. The Attorney-General in this video must have been scared (scroll back to the beginning of this short video).

“[Update: Based on some of the responses, people still have trouble imagining what it's like to have the fascists in charge. Well, here's a short video in which one of the “revolutionaries” is “holding discussions” with a Ukrainian Attorney General, on camera. You don't have to understand Ukrainian to see what's happening.]”

ANOTHER CENTRAL BANKER INSTALLED? Say it isn’t so! This piece from The Automatic Earth:

“While there can be no doubt that ousted president Yanukovych was a corrupt pr*ck, he was still democratically elected. And considering that, instigating regime change on Russia’s doorstep would have to be a step so risky that perhaps only a somewhat 18th century megalomaniac mind would attempt it. Victoria Nuland and US ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt had been negotiating their goals for quite some time with the Ukraine opposition, so much so that Nuland calls new PM Arseniy Yatsenyuk “Yats” and leader of the Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reform Vitali Klitschko “Klitsch” in her conversations with Pyatt. These people know each other. Well.

“Yats” is now the PM of what should probably be called a technocrat government (illegal as it may be), he’s a former – central – banker, a pattern that has a familiar sound to it, most recently observed in southern Europe. [...]

Nuland wasn’t just impatient with the EU, she wanted the whole process to move faster. And that’s where she made her biggest kingmaker mistake: she got into cahoots with various highly shady and questionable right wing groups, who, since they were armed and willing, seemed the ideal partners for the US to speed up events.”

What a world – It’s like a sick competition of who can be the biggest bunch of bastards & the most successful bully. I have read a lot of comments today from those who still believe in good guys & bad guys who pointlessly try to shout down those who disagree on who should be wearing either a black or white hat. Armchair warriors shouting for the US to attack Russia ( Presumably as long as it’s someone else who’s sent ) & McCain does a dead kennedy spouting that ” We are all Ukranians “.

I wonder how long, ( if ever ) it’s going to take before there is a wide realisation from those who will otherwise soon be dead & all the other potential pawns. that their strings are being pulled by a bunch of plague ridden rats fighting over the remains of an almost stripped, rotten carcass.

Firstly thanks, as I had been hoping you would write a piece on Ukraine. I read a range of blogs and websites and it was interesting to read some people saying watch out for a ‘manufactured’ conflict somewhere, and then others talking about how the US was manipulating the protests in Ukraine. When you read stuff before it all becomes mainstream then it gives you a different perspective on events. Those who are ‘catching up’ by watching/reading the MSM do risk having their views shaped by said media.

I think Putin is actually being quite clever. He is just containing the situation and avoiding violence, and allowing people the time to see what is going on now as well as what has been happening since the start.

Putin just needs the correct reaction from the UK/US so as to give him moral authority – this will return Russian energy consumption to Military expenditure …….Germany will collapse …..euro wealth will flood into the “free world ”

The people of eastern Europe with the exception of perhaps the Czechs are the most naive people imaginable.
I remember talking to them as they came over here in numbers 10 + years ago
They really believed the Reagan dogma.
After watching Rocky IV they became political experts…………..

I hope you are wrong Mr. Dork as judging from the past that whole region doesn’t do wars by halves & if the Ukraine turns into another Greece it will be a XXX version. Interesting report from an American living there via Mish – Gives a lowdown on the lunatics who are trying to run that particular asylum. Contains an infograph that shows the country is split in two as to language :

@Steve
Modern neo liberal Europe was built on Soviet and Warsaw pact surplus raw materials………….it has become a sort of heroin addict without a basic national economic fabric and thus redundancy.
It merely turns Russian Platinum into jewels – however you cannot eat jewels.
The dash for gas economy of Europe is ripe for the picking.

Which European banks are most exposed to Ukraine debt? Unicredit of Italy and Raiffeisein of Austria. What do you bet me that there is a loan from Europe or the IMF which will be just like the loans to Greece. Money which the people of Ukraine will pay through the nose for in the long run, but which will actually be on a round trip back to UniCredit and Raiffeisen?

Ukraine is going to be Greece Mark II as far as teh banks are concerned. A debt client state used for funnelling money to where they want it. And “Yats” is just the unelected technocrat to do it.

These quotes are from Forbes – that well known den of Left wing conspiracy theorists.

“They like him because he’s pro Western,” says Vladimir Signorelli, president of boutique investment research firm Bretton Woods Research LLC in New Jersey. “Yatsenyuk is the the kind of technocrat you want if you want austerity, with the veneer of professionalism,” Signorelli said. “He’s the type of guy who can hobnob with the European elite. A Mario Monti type: unelected and willing to do the IMFs bidding,”

“Oddly enough, earlier this month, the pro-Western Yats trailed behind popular opposition leaders such as former heavyweight boxer Viltali Klitschko and the leader of the nationalist, Svoboda Party, Oleh Tyahnybok. But Yats had friends in high places and while he does not have strong support of the electorate, and would have no chance of winning an election, he is pro-IMF austerity and apparently the bulk of parliament is as well.”

Point of information on a very interesting article. The Spanish government is a lot less worried about the Basques going for independence than Catalonia these days. But when Germany is partially successful because of its highly regional structure and the EU contains nations as small as Malta, Cyprus and Luxembourg it seems odd that the EU would not see the benefits of a greater regionalization in Europe and give rather less emphasis on the nation state in a federal future.
Of course this runs against the highly centralized nature of France and the centralizing tendencies of many other states including the UK and the real politik that goes on. I think the EU is going to face some real problems in this area however with Catalonian disgust with the Madrid faction in Spain growing all the time…and you may be right Golem in that the US will enjoy the process. But is Obama really so stupid as to allow Nuland to run his foreign policy?
And the last thing Merkel wants to present her voters is another economic basket case like Ukraine needing massive new loans and filled with the kind of nationalists she would run a mile from if they were in Germany.

What you say about Germany I agree with. Merkel is caught in a difficult cul de sac. Makes it interesting to watch.

As for Obama and Nuland. It’s not Nuland running his foreign policy its the Council on Foreign Relations manipulating it and perhaps front running it.

The long history of the CFR’s influence on various presidents, its very long and close ties to both the Pentagon and mostly the older part of the CIA is public knowledge. Old East Coast money with ties to old money on Wall Street and particularly to Chase.

And guess who has ties to the CFR albeit not direct ones? Yats does. Nuland’s ‘man we want.’

As we speak/type Putin has indeed pulled off another brilliant move by stating her will remove his troops from the Ukraine in due time. Think about this for a minute Putin pulled off securing Crimera without a shot being fired and as you well know this was and is all about the Baltic fleet deep water port. Putin does not care about our threats coming from this administration. Our banks do not yet control Russia and most likely never will.

I do not condone what Putin did but it was brilliant from a military stand point. He basically took over a region of a country without a shot being fired or a person being killed. In contrast the USA would have bombed the crap out of their Air defenses, military bases and infrastructure and then invaded. We would have killed many people. I really hate typing this as I love the USA but it is a fact so I do indeed hate typing it. Putin showed restraint in what could have been a blood bath securing the port. As historians look back on this they will consider it brilliant and worth studying.

And yet again our inept warmongers and sabre rattling inept politicians like McCain honestly look basically stupid. I am sure Putin could care less about the USA and some of its allies boycotting the G8 summit. It is laughable.

Germany is not stupid and has been making closer ties to the East for several reasons. First and foremast is a steady energy supply after it greens energy debacle. Germany is trying to move its products in the eastern market as the EU is basically in a recession and German product are currently not popular because of the Euro troubles and Germany is quite frankly taking a beating over the Euro problems. For a production based economy to work you must sell the products you make and the Germans do make many excellent products.

I just want to face palm at all the rhetoric coming out of our MSM over this situation and yet it is ok to kill people in foreign countries with drones. It is ok for the USA to invade countries without cause or in the name of terrorism and yet any other country doing it is labeled as a rogue nation trying to start WW3. Did you all read about the Russian missile test yesterday after the sabre rattling here in the USA? Simply brilliant militarily move to tell the USA to get screwed.

“Officers of Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) loyal to the ousted President Viktor Yanukovich have hacked phones of Estonian Minister of Foreign Affairs Urmas Paet and High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton and leaked their conversation to the web. The officials discuss their impressions of what’s happening in the country after the revolution. The gist of it is that Ukrainian people have no trust in any of the leaders of Maidan.
However the most striking thing of all is the fact which concerns the use of force during the revolution, particularly the snipers who killed both protesters and officers of the riot police. Mr. Paet reveals astonishing information which confirms the rumours that the snipers were employed by the leaders of Maidan.”

stevie – good post. And the new coalition doesn’t want to investigate. I wonder why (sarc).

“Zero Hedge reveals a shocking recording between:

“…..EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton and Estonian foreign minister Urmas Paet, in which it is revealed on tape that all those photos of horrifying deaths of Ukrainians by snipers during the last days of the Median stand off, were in fact caused not by Snipers controlled by Yanukovich, but that the snipers shot at both protesters and police in Kiev were allegedly hired by Maidan leaders!”

At about 8:20 of the video recording of conversation:

“Paet: “All the evidence shows that people who were killed by snipers from both sides, policemen and people from the streets, that they were the same snipers killing people from both sides. … Some photos that showed it is the same handwriting, the same type of bullets, and it is really disturbing that now the new coalition they don’t want to investigate what exactly happened. So there is now stronger and stronger understanding that behind the snipers, it was not Yanukovych, but it was somebody from the new coalition.”

Ashton: “I think we do want to investigate. I mean, I didn’t pick that up, that’s interesting. Gosh.”

What is also interesting is the way that Ashton seems to consider sending in the “…business leaders…” and IMF, with all the usual neo liberal economic medicine, as the solution that will help the ordinary Ukrainians which she seems otherwise quite sympathetic towards.

The phrase “…. useful idiot….” springs to mind. Seems people like Ashton have learnt precisely nothing from the last 6 years.

I had already noted the exposure to Austria & Italy’s dodgiest banks & it seems to me that besides the neo nazis (likely source of snipers?) the rest of the new coalition are essentially finance sector (or closely connected) thieves & plutocrats. There’s been quite a bit of action lately to develop Fracking & revive other sources of Ukrainian oil & gas. Chevron signed a deal last year, few hundred million $ involved initially but $10billion potential investment also mentioned. Other Western Corps also in there. Possible production of oil & gas not considered much more than self-sufficiency for Ukraine itself, but at present & projected prices (& population 50million), significant enough for greedy snouts.

Well, that’s the local politico/oligarch interest, but what of the US?

IMO there seems to be a pattern developing of ‘divide & destabilise’ anywhere & everywhere by the US/neocon interests.

Doesn’t seem much in this for Europe, so Victoria Nuland’s “..Fuck the EU…” looks like a good summary of US/neocon elites’ real policy toward Europe.

Interestingly, gas supply was mentioned by a Washington talking head in a piece about the crisis on Ch4 news couple of days ago with an equally astonishing call to speed up the (TIPP) trade deal so US can supply Europe with gas instead of reliance on Russian supply (!). Kind of stood out among everyone else talking about sovereignty etc.

When all this is added up, including Syria etc. I think all of this is early pre-emptive moves in a strategy aimed at weakening US rivals in anticipation of the severe security threats the Pentagon has already noted from impending issues like Peak Oil & Climate Change. (Noting destabilising consequences already from their effect on world food supplies & prices.)

Well, I tend to think most of them in the Sales (propaganda, politics) Dept. are ‘useful’ idiots’.

More effective, I think, for them to be ignorant of reality or truth. Of course they tend to understand perfectly their comfortable remuneration depends on not challenging anything of the the real Power.

Ashton looks like small fry to me, but I don’t know who she is in reality.

So nothing good for the ukrainian people can come out of this uprising and it is run by fachist and bankers anyway and people are just naîve…? What about the fact that people might be tired of the incredible corruption of the whole ukrainian political system and the opacity of their governement. What about the fact that people are not allowed to travel freely in the west as most of us take it for granted and as thier polish cousins do. People realise that the oligarch don’t pay taxes and put thier money abroad in fiscal paradise. The realise that the 50 richest people of ukraine make about 85% of the income of the poeple of the intire country. It is wild capitalism at it’s best.
The people might just have been tired of it.

A good article and an interesting discussion – some of it quite astute and some less so. I assume that the conversation in the video clip of the Ukrainian Attorney General getting some friendly advice from his new masters (while uniformed police stand and watch) is going to be translated and re-posted with sub titles. Does anyone know where?

Crimean parliament votes for secession to join the Russian federation.

Ethnic cleansing anybody ? I sincerely hope I am wrong but it seems to me that the same factors that led to the events subsequent to the break up of Yugoslavia could result in a similar situation in the Ukraine. The vicious ghosts of the UPA rather than the Chetniks ?, internment camps ? movements of people who are caught in the wrong half ? whether voluntary or forced. A can of worms I would personally like to feed to those who started this.

“What the semicolon’s anxious supporters fret about is the tendency of contemporary writers to use a dash instead of a semicolon and thus precipitate the end of the world. Are they being alarmist?”
― Lynne Truss, Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation

Although the Ukraine is somewhat poor and badly managed, I would not underestimate the value of land, people, and other assets like pipelines that are quite tempting to the Banks, who sit on Obama’s right hand.

Pry open a country, install a pliant leader, and send in the economic hitmen, and devour it. Even poor Greece was worth it. And they make a desert, and call it peace.

And of course it appeases the hawks and neo-cons promoting the defense industry. A win-win.

@Jesse
A shallow argument/
The neo cons have much deeper goals then many give them credit for.

As I have said Iraq as been a success using their metrics
Further globalization via the creation of refugees to maintain the rate of profit in more industrial and financial areas of the globe and oil to feed Asian capitalistic dependency.

The neo cons goal is no less then the destruction of all remaining village like cooperation exchanges.

Jesse (and others) have you read John Perkin’s Confessions of an Economic Hitman? It is right beside David’s book and one of John Pilger’s (and other non-conventional thinking type reads) on my shelf, in fact I grabbed it again to read about trade agreements when David mentioned the new fangled ones coming into force/play. Yep, the old question still applies – cui bono? Have we learnt nothing from past mistakes?

Also it would be nice if people stopped trying to dichotomise or partition this issue. “Well if you aren’t with the US or the EU, then you must be with Russia.” Er, no…..but the anti-Russian propaganda still raging is quite comical. And again the lack of reporting on what the people (yes, the people of Ukraine) are thinking or wanting and doing, rather than what the politicians and the West want us to hear, see and think (biased, propagandised poop) is unsurprising but frustrating. Where are all the real reporters and investigative journalists hiding?

There is no good outcome to this. Austerity, indebtedness, a broken country. I am not for the West or Russia or even the EU, I want the Ukrainians to rise up together, because I am sure whether they are from the left, right, centre or don’t choose to vote at all, they want the best for their country. And harder times and more riots and unease are not far away and seem inevitable. Will the Ukrainian David Malone please stand up? (speaking of which, are there any blogs from the Ukraine that anyone has read that shed light on the dark spots?)

“The funds allegedly disappeared from the mid-1990s onwards at a time when Tymoshenko ran United Energy Systems. UES was awarded the monopoly rights by Lazarenko, then Prime Minister, to import Russian gas into Ukraine. These allegations were entirely separate to those which much later saw Tymoshenko jailed ….
The US prosecutors found assets all over the world, notably a NatWest bank account based in London Bridge. The account contained £40 million and was in the name of United Energy Systems with the joint beneficiaries being Lazerenko and Tymoshenko’s husband Oleksander”.

One of the first things the new regime did after taking power was to release Yulia Tymoshenko from prison (no mention of a retrial or rule of law). The European People’s Party didn’t seem concerned by how she got her wealth when they invited her to speak at their congress this week. Hardly anyone seems concerned either that a new deputy prime minister is from a neo-Nazi party. That’s probably because the important thing is that the new prime minister is the central banker Yatsenyuk, who is the US government’s favourite (“Yats is the guy” according to Nuland) and an ally and party colleague of Tymoshenko.

I don’t know if president Yanukovych is corrupt – the western media assures us that he is –
but the new order in Kiev doesn’t seem any better.

Interesting hearing the great & the obviously not very good showing their true colours when they think that they are safe to be their terrible selves. I imagine the NSA must have some spicy conversations on record that future generations might get to hear while imagining that their current crop of megalomaniacs are somehow different,

Perhaps it’s me that’s stupid, or perhaps it’s all part of an unfolding master plan, but the West’s whole handling of this affair looks to me to be totally idiotic, like throwing stones from a greenhouse at a building made of rubber, is it a sign of desperation perhaps ? Is this & basic stupidity what eventually leads to the greatest idiocy, namely war – I would love to know what David’s latest thoughts are on this.

Here’s a quote nicked from Jesse on hubris that for me sums up the potential for nemesis & stupidity amongst our glorious leaders :

History Lesson
Tsar Nicholas II: I know what will make them happy. They’re children, and they need a Tsar! They need tradition. Not this! They’re the victims of agitators. A Duma would make them bewildered and discontented. And don’t tell me about London and Berlin. God save us from the mess they’re in!

Count Witte: I see. So they talk, pray, march, plead, petition and what do they get? Cossacks, prison, flogging, police, spies, and now, after today, they will be shot. Is this God’s will? Are these His methods? Make war on your own people? How long do you think they’re going to stand there and let you shoot them? YOU ask ME who’s responsible? YOU ask?

Tsar Nicholas II: The English have a parliament. Our British cousins gave their rights away. The Hapsburgs, and the Hoehenzollerns too. The Romanovs will not. What I was given, I will give my son.

“By the way, new emissaries of new Kiev for eastern regions are huge oligarchs, owners of the biggest capitals in Ukraine. So it’s not alternative to Yanukovych or anybody else–the same bureaucratic oligarch capitalism, which will organize the same bureaucratic manipulation, or even worse than it was before.
“People were tired from Yanukovych, and I understand very well that it is necessary and it was necessary to make democratic revolution. But what was happened in Ukraine, unfortunately, is not real democratic revolution on the basis of the–on the backs of the ordinary people who wanted to change bureaucratic, corrupted power, came to the power another–representatives of another oligarchical groups, another geopolitical forces who want to manipulate with Ukraine.
And also–this is extremely important; I want to stress. Their real force, which helped to receive power for modern Ukraine in government, this is force of Ukrainian nationalists. And they directly use symbols and slogans of troops in Ukraine which supported fascism, German fascism, for terrible actions against peaceful population, against Jews, first of all, against Belarus people, against Ukrainian and Russian people who did not support fascism or who did not want to collaborate with fascist Germany. It was anti-red, by the way, struggle, anticommunist struggle. And now in some regions of Ukraine, regional authorities said that Communist Party must be forbidden because this is pro-Russian party.”

Not to mention all the Middle East and muslim countries that were targets for regime change,
only to become useful training grounds for anti-western extremists.

Putin isn’t extremely clever, he just seems that way compared to the clueless politicians in the west, and the US in particular. No recent American Secretary of State (Kerry, Clinton, Rice) can claim any real success but they wouldn’t know that because they have most of the media on their side.

A Grauniad comment suggests it will be good to celebrate WW1 in a re-run without the horses.

Looking at the Ukraine situation led me to some interesting and foul history on slaving. The Crimean Tartars and various Jewish groups were shipping mostly Eastern Slavs to the Middle East through the port of Caffe. It was called the ‘harvesting of the Russian Steppes’. Moscow was sacked and raised to the ground in 1751 to this end. 500,000 Eastern European women were trafficked in the first years after wall-fall.

One can speculate the Ukraine is about anything from Russian imperialism to a US plot to destabilise Europe. Deep in I’m wondering whether the model is the same as that behind slavery. Ordinary people are degraded and fabulous wealth is ending up with a small number of rich. The slavers are accountants and lawyers. Various fiefdoms and nations are merely bases for this activity.

The people of Ukraine are between a rock & a hard place. Russia who not so long ago through Stalin were responsible for the death of around 7 million, mainly through starvation within a giant bread basket, & the West who want their resources & to consign them to exist as an extension to a stagnant periphery.

I can understand the hatred against Russia & their probable rose tinted view of the West, as the majority there probably have very tough lives – Maybe they see Europe like Mexicans see the US, as a promised land.

The Neoliberal system you describe, like the word itself is beyond the majority’s comprehension wherever they are – We are all living in a broken promised land.

Excellent article. I sincerely hope that you are wrong because the consequences could be dire. I have written a different view on the Ukraine Crisis, albeit on the assumption that the Germans take a lead in getting a negotiated solution in place with the Russuains AND that the US modulates its bellicose posture.

see
theCantillonObserver.com
article: The Ukraine Crisis: what are the likely outcomes ?
page: European (Dis-)Integration

Its not rocket science. In all times and all places the play is for exclusive property to the land of that country and its economic rents. it has always been this way. Nothing is new in Ukraine – time to wake up:

“People often ask MeltFund what will happen following the abolition of all taxation and the funding of government from location value rents instead – the position reached when the great mass of people have chosen freedom over slavery.

At MeltFund we know for certain people will spend their time looking for meaning in life, looking for God, or what have you. Each will have their own way, each way will be just as valid, each one of us will now be trying to achieve more consciousness, about reality.

We are even more certain this is the exact reason The People will never vote for its adoption.

Now is the time to get into Ukraine, find a trusty agent, and use him to buy as much property as you can in the centre of its cities at rock bottom prices. Sell all non property based assets to raise more funds. Pay them 5% as selling agent.

Then sit back and wait for the location value there, despite the buildings condition, rise 10 or 20 times over the next 12 years, tax free, work free.

Sell up in 2024 if elderly and live out your life like a king. Or if not old and you think you can hold out for the following 6 years to cover the recession, keep waiting and things will be back to normal by 2030.

Or if you want to trade short, get out in 5 years for a 10 times gain.

There is nothing illegal about this. If you think this is immoral, then perhaps its time to start talking about it openly and objectively, instead of tilting at superficial windmills Don Quixote style.

“……..Motesharri explored the factors which could lead to the collapse of civilisation, from population growth to climate change, and found that when these converge they can cause society to break down because of the “stretching of resources” and “the economic stratification of society into ‘Elites’ and ‘Masses’”.

Using his Handy model to assess a scenario closely resembling the current state of the world, Motesharri found that civilisation “appears to be on a sustainable path for quite a long time, but even using an optimal depletion rate and starting with a very small number of Elites, the Elites eventually consume too much, resulting in a famine among the Masses that eventually causes the collapse of society”.

The report stressed, however, that the worst-case scenario of collapse is not inevitable, and called on action now from the so-called real world “Elites” to restore economic balance.

“Collapse can be avoided and population can reach equilibrium if the per capita rate of depletion of nature is reduced to a sustainable level, and if resources are distributed in a reasonably equitable fashion,” the scientists said…….”

Stimulating thoughts. Note that half of the gas Germany burns comes from Russia, most of it still via Ukraine. If the Russians cut the gas flow the German electric grid will go under in a matter of weeks; coming the winter a lot of folk will be let in the cold. On the contrary, France gets little gas from Russia, and is far less dependent on this fossil fuel – one of the few member states left with a nuclear park – it would suffer from a gas cut, but it would resist. Apart from Spain and Portugal all other member states are dependent on Russian gas, Italy, Ireland and the UK, although not importing large volumes, are at the very end of the pipe, possibly the most vulnerable to any disruption. Unlike with petroleum or coal, there is no practical way to cope with a gas cut in the short or medium term. A member state like Germany would have to build pipelines to the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, hope for a doubling or trippling of the world’s LNG fleet and then outbid the Asian buyers.

Look into how [dangerously] dependent the Russian government / economy is on profits from gas and oil exports. You’ll see that, until Russia completes a good portion of its development of an eastward-bound hydrocarbon market to China and East Asia [largely in response to its vulnerability to US / EU shenanigans, btw], which is likely to take years, Russia literally cannot afford to jeapardize its dependency on income from the European market.

Most political talking heads have it backwards, conveniently pounding the notion that Europe is deathly vulnerable to Russia’s primacy in the natural gas market, when these same political players understand all too well that it is in fact Russia that is the dependent party.

Unfortunately this is leading to fresh, precipitated deviousness on the part of the US / EU and, interestingly, Israel, in an attempt to undermine the Russian economy while the goin’ is good.

Hence the subterfuge disruption in Syria, the Ukraine, the Caucasus, Georgia, Afghanistan and Central Asia, not to mention the subjugation of Greece, with its immense gas reserves in the Aegean Sea; Cyprus, as well.

It is recognized that finance capitalism, having come up against some serious, obstructive ‘ceilings’, in the past century, requires control of energy resources in order to avert the collapse of the permanently bubble-ridden financial Ponzi scheme.

‘America can then export gas/oil to Europe – an easy sell at the moment as Europe can easily agree to reduce fuel dependency on Russia.

I should also expect a much lower oil price. I think I read somewhere that US oil production costs are $50 while Russia breakeven is closer to $100′

Only if, first, the Senate can overturn the 1974 ban on exporting hydro-carbons outside the US, that protects the price of oil-gas and maintains a low pump price for consumers, manufacturers and the MIC which rely heavily on cheap prices. The Senate will also have to overturn the 1974 ban on exporting hydro-carbons outside the US, that protects the price of oil-gas, thereby exposing itself to market prices for these energy sources for the first time in 40 odd years. Secondly, they have to then sell this idea of increased prices to US voters weaned on notions of ‘suburban life’ and ‘the car’ as well as various manufacturing and defence lobby groups.

Imagine what this full exposure to the market will do to the price of petrol for US consumers, particularly as American middle class suburban development is more reliant on the car and cheap petrol more than any other lifestyle.

That’s the reason why ‘US oil production costs are $50 while Russia breakeven is closer to $100′, not through any sense of efficiency but through a protective barrier they themselves are about to crack open and expose to market forces.

Imagine what this full exposure to the market will do to the price of petrol for US consumers and manufacturers when oil and gas can be sold much more profitably to Europe and the UK, particularly as American middle class suburban development is more reliant on the car and cheap petrol than any other lifestyle in the world.

Heads up on a very good analysis of the Way democracy as Narrated and power Poitics really works.
€ and a half hours bur worth a look a good crib sheet for those already faniliar a good primer for those starting out critically examining received versions of reality.
Part 1https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTGDrg7T7rM

just as a by the by, whilst O’bomber & lackeys are flapping buttocks over Ukraine, anyone notice their deafening silence on Egypt’s 2hr (max!) ‘due process’ that convicted and handed down death penalties on 529 people, most in absentia….

mainstream media? bbc?….. you fucking asshole excuses for human beings….when are you going to ‘hold politicians to account’ ?

I stole the IMF thing from someone else – I also found a suitable word today from Jesse that is a nice fit for the MSM – ‘ Presstitutes ‘.

If you are fed up of the majority of the Western media trying to ignore the Nazi faction in the latest Ukrainian loot fest, you might want to watch this Russian version of events. There is no doubt about the presence of Nazi’s in this video, which despite myself I found very funny – Very black humour but makes some good points from a Russian perspective :

We should run a competition for the best paragraph of terms like ‘presstitutes’. The words given out by most MSM pundits are now irrelevant to meaning in-themselves. The words in my head are stuff like ‘yet another lackey in red braces from the City’, ‘fatuous bimbo sex irrelevant’ and ‘bugger this I could do with a beer’.

Global ‘conspiracy’ in the interests of the Capital owning elites may not be an appropriate phrase, global ‘coordination’ certainly is.

And I do think the key dividing line in societies is Capital vs opposing Labour interests, exactly as Marx had it.

I don’t think it’s any accident that this concept – so blindingly obvious to me – has been near entirely removed from education & public discourse. The ultimate ‘taboo’ subject.

As Paul McCulley (ex PIMCO) succinctly puts it in his (Ireland) Kilkenomics lecture, if the Capital owners dominate the institutions of the (always) majority, labour masses, there can be be no meaningful Democracy.

As I’ve said here before, we won’t have democracy – governance in the interests of majority – until the personal wealth motivation is removed from all institutions required to serve the public purpose.

I must admit to having a slightly uneasy feeling about this from INET’s inception, tho’ I do agree with Norbert himself in that present evidence is inconclusive either way.

But anyone who delved into the history of heterodox economics (as I have), esp the Post Keynesian school cannot help but notice the systematic way that important ideas Keynes began – arguably ‘macro’ economics itself, as distinct from ‘micro’, and the vital role of government in macro stability implied – were not simply challenged, but twisted & incorporated into the neo classical / neo liberal synthesis that dominates today.

This ‘takeover’, if you will, began in earnest in the 1950s with Hayek’s global promotion of think tanks that had no ‘scholarly’ role, but were mere PR operations like the Mont Pelerin Society & the thousands of clones spawned in a global pyramid marketing campaign.

McCarthyism also saw textbooks removed en masse from US Universities & many academics silenced or sacked.

Unable to be challenged effectively, people like Samuelson butchered Keynes into a micro founded synthesis that became the basis of the completely useless macro economics and its modelling that is the orthodox mainstream today.

Note also the deafening mainstream silence on the recent BoE statements concerning money & banking. Who else but Steve Keen to give you the skinny…

No question about it in my mind, the wealthy elites & their lackeys & useful idiots of the senior political, public service & media classes are a strongly ‘coordinated’ self serving entity in their own right, distinctly separate from the majority of citizens, culturally, financially & increasingly physically/geographically.

Note to Golem…. sorry, my friend, and with all due respect for all the good you have done here, but if you think going to Brussels (or even Westminster) as a Green elected rep. will make the slightest dent in all this, you are deluding yourself & most definitely wasting your talents in communicating with people.

Whatever else you think of Russell Brand, he is right in contending that no real change will come unless demanded & seen through from outside all the existing institutions. Nothing less than a mass supported (peaceful) revolution will do it imo. It won’t be easy.

In this 2008 interview with Robert Kagan in which he blames others for the developing mess he supported in Iraq he says this :

“The two rising powers, China and Russia, are autocracies. They are undoubtedly becoming more aggressive and nationalistic. They will shape the entire international system to suit their purposes, unless democratically minded nations join forces and demonstrate their own collective will to shape the world order”.

Their world view is mainly based on the teachings of Eli Strauss who had a fondness for Plato, Nietzsche & Machiavelli. They like Plato’s idea that the majority of humanity are of little worth & need to be controlled like cattle by the use of ” The Great Lie “. This vulgar horde should also be led by the virtuous ( No prizes for guessing who ), find religion & reject what they refer to nihilism, the modernist pursuit of pleasure & instead get religious while devoting their lives to serve their country & the greater good.

They also see continuous warfare as the proper state for mankind, or at least a worthy occupation for the herd to which they & their children obviously do not belong. To be fair they seems to be hard & softer versions of this movement, which some refer to as a ‘Mood’, but as we know moods can change with circumstance.

“The American people need something greater than themselves to live for. They need to learn the virtue of sacrifice, which means war. War–perpetual war–is the ultimate means by which the neocons can fight creeping nihilism and promote sacrifice and nationalistic patriotism. An aggressive, proactive foreign policy therefore serves a greater purpose–to raise ordinary Americans above their daily, selfish concerns. Nation building also provides neoconservative statesmen with a grand theatre on which to practice their statesmanlike virtues.

Eight months before three passenger jets slammed into the towers of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, murdering several thousand innocent people, the neoconservative Michael Ledeen published a book extolling Machiavellian virtue and its relevance for today. Ledeen there projected his great hope for America: that it might “get lucky” and be awakened and renewed morally by a devastating attack similar to that of Pearl Harbor. Well, it would seem that America got “lucky” from Ledeen’s perspective. In the end, this is what neoconservatism is all about and it’s why we’ve written its obituary in the hopes of killing it.”

C. Bradley Thompson author of Neoconservatism: An Obiturary for an Idea.

Meanwhile Neo-con Robert Kaplan has written an article which also looks backwards to the merits of slavery:

As I knew little of the habits of the above & spurred on by the excellent video that Roger posted, I spent a few days reading articles & listening to videos on the subject. Obviously the above is a subjective selection & somebody more knowledgeable than me might well have a different take. I posted this here as it might be of interest to somebody.

Have to say the last 6 years, viewed overall, look relentless to me in terms of the progress of neo liberalism & the neo con agenda as well (closely linked imo).

Rather than any kind of pause, or re-evaluation by the mainstream, if anything, these agendas have stepped up a gear & met with no ‘official’ resistance anywhere. Despite, I think public awareness, albeit still in a minority, having grown considerably, not least because of blogs like Golem’s and others.

One striking recent example of the apparent invisibility of truth in the mainstream is the admission by BoE that ‘loans create deposits’ in commercial banking, completely at odds with near every macro economics textbook going back, well, at least 50 years.

It’s just as the Post Keynesians (MMT, Steve Keen etc) have said – at the core of their arguments – that the neo classical orthodoxy in macro is utter crap, based on a deliberate lie as to what ‘money’ is at the macro level. (How convenient for bankers…)

What amazes me is that no supposed left leaning political economist, in the UK Labour party, or any other party supposedly critical of modern Finance, has made any comment whatever…..nada, zilch.

And then Vince Cable gets completely duped by big finance in privatising the UK Post Office service, gifting them £100s millions right now, plus likely £billions in future asset strip profits. Talk about laughing stock….. I bet the Champagne flowed like rivers in the City toasting Cable. He’s either SUPER clever & will be getting a Blair calibre ‘pay-off’ when he quits politics, or a more ignorant prick has never walked the Earth upright…… (I’m thinking the latter at the moment…)

Sure, the handful people at the top know exactly what they’re doing, but are all the ‘political classes’ really so completely fucking stupid? I mean not just dumb, but highly fucking trained, educated & selected to be clueless? Seems so….

Bill sums up very well the idiocy of it all – I was listening to a Chomsky vid the other day when he mentioned that he was very much afraid that the West was going in a similar direction to the Weimar republic. He was not talking economics but politics – His view was that due to the centre or the left not putting up any resistance to the right, the establishment right was running amok as it did in Weimar Germany & due to the mess that developed ordinary people turned to Hitler.

The only thing that is usually mentioned is that states problems with hyper-inflation which actually occurred at the start of the republic from 1919-1923. This was followed by ” The Golden Twenties ” until the onset of ” The Great Depression “. I had always assumed that Hitler’s rise was due to the results of hyper-inflation but actually it was due to this ( from Wiki ) :

Between 1930 and 1932, Brüning tried to reform the Weimar Republic without a parliamentary majority, governing, when necessary, through the President’s emergency decrees. In line with the contemporary economic theory (subsequently termed “leave-it-alone liquidationism”), he enacted a draconian policy of deflation, drastically cutting state expenditure.[1] Among other measures, he completely halted all public grants to the obligatory unemployment insurance introduced in 1927, resulting in workers making higher contributions and fewer benefits for the unemployed. Benefits for the sick, invalid and pensioners were also reduced sharply.[21] Additional difficulties were caused by the different deflationary policies pursued by Brüning and the Reichsbank, Germany’s central bank.[22] In mid-1931, the United Kingdom and several other countries abandoned the gold standard and devalued their currencies, making their goods around 20% cheaper than those produced by Germany.[23] As the Young Plan did not allow a devaluation of the Reichsmark, Brüning triggered a deflationary internal devaluation by forcing the economy to reduce prices, rents, salaries and wages by 20%.[23] Debate continues as to whether this policy was without alternative: some argue that the Allies would not in any circumstances have allowed a devaluation of the Reichsmark, while others point to the Hoover Moratorium as a sign that the Allies understood that the situation had changed fundamentally and further German reparation payments were impossible. Brüning expected that the policy of deflation would temporarily worsen the economic situation before it began to improve, quickly increasing the German economy’s competitiveness and then restoring its creditworthiness. His long-term view was that deflation would, in any case, be the best way to help the economy. His primary goal was to remove Germany’s reparation payments by convincing the Allies that they could no longer be paid.[24] Anton Erkelenz, chairman of the German Democratic Party and a contemporary critic of Brüning, famously said that the policy of deflation is a:
“ rightful attempt to release Germany from the grip of reparation payments, but in reality it meant nothing else than committing suicide because of fearing death. The deflation policy causes much more damage than the reparation payments of 20 years … Fighting against Hitler is fighting against deflation, the enormous destruction of production factors.[25] ”
In 1933, the American economist Irving Fisher developed the theory of debt deflation. He explained that a deflation causes a decline of profits, asset prices and a still greater decline in the net worth of businesses. Even healthy companies, therefore, may appear over-indebted and facing bankruptcy.[23] The consensus today is that Brüning’s policies exacerbated the German economic crisis and the population’s growing frustration with democracy, contributing enormously to the increase in support for Hitler’s NSDAP.[1]
Most German capitalists and landowners originally supported the conservative experiment more from the belief that conservatives would best serve their interests rather than any particular liking for Brüning. As more of the working and middle classes turned against Brüning, however, more of the capitalists and landowners declared themselves in favour of his opponents Hitler and Hugenberg. By late 1931, the conservative movement was dead and Hindenburg and the Reichswehr had begun to contemplate dropping Brüning in favour of accommodating Hugenberg and Hitler. Although Hindenburg disliked Hugenberg and despised Hitler, he was no less a supporter of the sort of anti-democratic counter-revolution that the DNVP and NSDAP represented.[26] In April 1932, Brüning had actively supported Hindenburg’s successful campaign against Hitler for re-election as Reichspräsident;[27] five weeks later, on 20 May 1932, he had lost Hindenburg’s support and duly resigned as Reichskanzler.

Hitler had gained a foothold with a 19% share of the vote in 1930, but it was only in 1933 that Hitler had enough support to completely take over & the rest is of course history. i am not saying Farage is Hitler but he is a populist & after his 1st debate with Clegg, most commentators reckoned that the more polished liar of the two had won it, but a poll of ordinary people showed that 84% believed Mr. bluster had won. It does seem that there is a growing frustration with mainstream politicians which is being channelled into populist party votes & looking back at Weimar it seems to point to one of the reasons being an economic policy of austerity that resulted in deflation which didn’t work then & will not work now & can & did lead to total disaster.

Yep, I agree, lots of parallels there, including perhaps things like bailouts (reparations), obviously austerity dogma, & the Euro (similar rigidities to a gold standard), just to mention a few.

I watched the 2nd Farage/Clegg debate tonight and I agree broadly with what you’re saying.

What stood out for me was not that Farage had any great talent or even anything coherent to say about the supposed issue – ie EU, in or out for UK.

Rather that Clegg was completely incapable of stringing anything coherent at all together by way of an argument. Totally an empty shell, only able to deliver a pre prepared speech.

Which of course, together with a well spoken accent, good TV manner, and willingness to say anything your advisers tell you to, are probably almost the only selection criteria for a modern mainstream party leader.

It’s what their institutional ‘system’ has been honed to deliver over decades of all the ‘product marketing’ BS that goes on behind the curtain (Bernays et al etc).

I suspect this is where Farage wins. He’s not been selected by that ‘leadership’ process, so being at least more ‘himself’, and thus able to respond more spontaneously, he couldn’t help but look better in a live debate with a party robot.

It’s quite tragic that someone as dangerously clueless in economics, not to say borderline racist, as Farage, gets a platform to offer the obviously popular counter narrative on things like Syria, Libya, Ukraine etc. That is, opposing the military adventures that so many ordinary public hate, but whose views are entirely ignored or patronised by political leaders & MSM all. Judging by the studio applause (& Yougov poll after), that played very well indeed for Farage.

The only problem for UK might be that Labour are so useless & already right wing that they may lose just as many General Election votes to UKIP as the Tories, or even more.

That could well mean a (slim) Tory victory (really Labour loss), and that would be very bad news for most in UK.

Makes Farage seem quite tame in comparison, although he appears to be rattling the political status quo, causing outrage with his talk of false flag chemical weapon attacks in Syria & the assertion that the EU & US caused the problems in Ukraine.

Milliband wants him banned from public debates & if he’s not careful he will end up being downgraded by S&P.

´´To restore true democracy in the United States by pressuring our State Representatives to pass a much needed 28th Amendment to our Constitution which would end corporate personhood and publicly finance all elections in our country. There are only 2 ways to amend the Constitution. (1) Go through our federal government (2) Go through our State Legislators via an Article V. Convention of the States.

Wolf PAC believes that we can no longer count on our federal government to do what is in the best interest of the American people due to the unfettered amount of money they receive from outside organizations to fund their campaigns. We point to the failure of the Disclose Act as rock solid evidence that this would be a total waste of our time, effort, and money. We also point to the recent decision by the US Supreme Court to not even hear a case filed by Montana claiming it did not have to abide by Citizens United, as proof that state legislation is not a suffient measure to solve this problem. We believe that we have no choice but to put an amendment in the hands of our State Legislators, who are not, at this moment in time, completely blinded by the influence of money and might actually do what 87% of the country wants…take away the massive influence that money has over our political process. ´´

Just watched this 5o minute interview with Ceenq uygur of the Young Turks on Truth Loader.

This Wolf Pac idea is very powerful I think, we must pay attention to what is happening in Rome as it were.

By the time you read this Russia will have invaded Ukraine. Well, that’s what the Supreme Allied Commander of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, US Air Force General Philip Breedlove, is spinning. Breedlove Supreme says the Russians are “ready to go” and could easily take over eastern Ukraine. Western corporate media have already dusted off their Kevlar vests.

Now compare Breedlove Supreme with a grown-up diplomat, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who has called on NATO to please de-escalate the “unreasonable” warmongering rhetoric, which also includes officially ending all civilian and military cooperation with Russia and planning more military moves in Eastern Europe.

patsy Anders Fogh Rasmussen, let’s see where we really stand on the ground, based on leaks from both Lavrov’s and US Secretary of State John Kerry’s camps.

The heart of the matter – obscured by a rainbow bridge of hysteria – is that neither Washington nor Moscow want Ukraine to become a festering wound. Moscow told Washington, officially, it has no intention of “invading” Ukraine. And Washington told Moscow that, for all the demented rhetoric, it does not want to expand NATO to either Ukraine or Georgia.

Whatever Washington’s actions, they won’t convince the Kremlin the putsch in Kiev was not orchestrated in large part by goons allied to Kaghanate of Nulands – aka US Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nulands. At the same time, the Kremlin knows time is on its side – so it would be totally counterproductive to even contemplate “invading” eastern Ukraine.

Compound the vicious catfight among dodgy factions in Kiev, from fascists to Saint Yulia “Kill all the Russians” Timoschenko; Gazprom raising the price of natural gas by 80%; and the International Monetary Fund about to unleash some nasty structural adjustment that will make Greece look like Cinderella playing in a rose garden, and all that Moscow needs to do is sit back, relax and watch the (internal) carnage.

The same applies for the Baltics – which, as NATO hysteria would have it, might be invaded next week. As the Baltics are part of NATO, then we would really have the Brussels Robocops going ballistic. Yet only trademark arrogant/ignorant neo-cons believe Moscow will break complex political/trade relationships with Europe – especially Germany – risking a hot war over the Baltics. The Germans don’t want a hot or cold war either. Even in the extremely unlikely event that would happen, what would macho, macho NATO do, under Pentagon’s orders? Invade Russian territory?

That does not even qualify as a lousy joke.

By the way, as bad jokes ago, it’s hard to top Olli Rehn, vice president of the Kafkaesque European Commission, stressing that ” in the interests to maintain peace and stability on our continent” the European Union is part of the 11 billion euro (US$15 billion) IMF/disaster capitalism package to plunder, sorry, “help” Ukraine, and this while EU citizens are unemployed and/or thrown into poverty by the millions.

As for Berlin’s top priority, that is to at least try to steer the EU out of an almighty crash, which implies keeping the equally economically devastated Club Med and Central Europe on board while fighting off the rise and rise of nasty, “normalized” neofascism. “Massive undertaking” does not even begin to describe it. Why add a confrontation with Moscow to this indigestible bouillabaisse?

New axis in the house
Moral high ground epiphanies such as this Guardian editorial (“he gained a peninsula but lost a country”) are pointless. Same for minion Poland freaking out and asking for more “protection” from the Brussels mafia.

Predictably, Western corporate media is spinning Putin “blinked” when he phoned US President Barack Obama to try to set up a solution package – which includes, crucially, a federalization of Ukraine. The Obama administration – even staffed by astounding mediocrities – knows this is the only rational way ahead. And no amount of “pressure” will bend Moscow. Those go-go days of imposing whatever whim over serial drunkard Boris Yeltsin are long gone. At the same time, Moscow is a realist player – fully aware that the only possible solution for Ukraine has to be worked out with Washington.

So Ukraine is essentially a detail – and “Europe” is no more than a helpless bystander. Who are you gonna call in “Europe”? That Magritte-style nonentity European Council President Herman Van Rompuy? Anyone who’s been to Brussels knows that “Europe” remains a glorified collection of principalities bickering in a smatter of languages. Machiavelli would easily recognize it as such.

To top if off, the Obama administration has no clue what it wants in Ukraine. A “constitutional democracy”? Moscow might even agree with that, while knowing, based on rows and rows of historical/cultural reasons, it’s bound to be a failure. The red line though has been spelled out over and over again: no NATO bases in Ukraine.

Rational players in Washington – a certified minority – certainly have noticed that if you don’t play ball with Moscow, Russia will play very hard ball within the framework of the P5+1 (the UN Security Council permanent members plus Germany) negotiations on the Iranian nuclear dossier.

Only the blind won’t see that Moscow and Tehran are evolving towards a closer strategic partnership as much as Moscow and Beijing. There’s a real strategic geopolitical axis in the house – Moscow-Beijing-Tehran – and the whole developing world has already noticed that’s where the real action is. But as far as Ukraine is concerned, the stark fact is this is all about the US and Russia.

I could be missing something here Bill, but if this research is so important to the US, why didn’t they just transplant the scientists to somewhere very secret like some compound in the Arizona desert ?

I would be interested in peoples views on this, personally I am a Anthropomorphic climate change sceptic but keen on bringing money creation back into the commons so this is a curates egg for
me more ways than one the Good Dr is a former missionary priest.

Carbon Currency is not a new idea, but has deep roots in Technocracy
Carbon Currency has grown from a continental proposal to a global proposal
It has been consistently discussed over a long period of time
The participants include many prominent global leaders, banks and think-tanks
The context of these discussions have been very consistent
Today’s goals for implementing Carbon Currency are virtually identical to Technocracy’s original Energy Certificates goals.
Of course, a currency is merely a means to an end. Whoever controls the currency also controls the economy and the political structure that goes with it. Inquiry into what such a system might look like will be a future topic.

The illegal Govt installed in Ukraine, by a coup against a Democratically elected President is a template of how the US operates to destabilise a country to maintain its hegemony.
The US propaganda machine and its European puppet states have been in overdrive to demonise Russia as the aggressor.
The Western press and media have lost all credibility as purveyors of independent thought and truth. It has never been more obvious that the MSM are the paid shills of the US empire.
Thanks to the internet and individual on site reporting, the lies are blatantly seen. We no longer are so gullible, to be led like sacrificial lambs into another war,for the enrichment of the Military Industrial complex and their bankster backers.
Edward Louis Bernays was a close family relation of Sigmund Freud. Whereas Freud was an exponent of individual psychology, Bernays concentrated on mass psychology and authored a book ‘Propaganda’ in 1928. The Nazi propagandist Goebbels had this book in his library and used many of the technques espoused therein.
Post war Bernays became wealthy as an advertising executive in the USA, but relabelled his techniques as Public Relations, the connotations of propaganda not being acceptable after WW11.
Below are listed some of the propaganda tools used by the Govt Ministry of Lies to control the message and persuade the sheeple to fall in line.
1. Deceit
2. Demonisation
3. Distortion
4. Distraction
5. Disruption
6. Diversion
7. Disinformation
8. Deniability.
9. Dissemination
10. Denigration
11. Obfuscation
12. Subterfuge
13. Repitition
14. Censorship

Those pesky Russkies are now interfering in America’s Asian affairs:
“The State Duma lower house on Friday ratified a 2012 agreement to write off the bulk of North Korea’s debt. It said the total debt stood at $10.96 billion as of Sept. 17, 2012 … Russia’s Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak told Russian media that the money could be used to fund mutual projects in North Korea, including a proposed gas pipeline and a railway to South Korea.”

Finally nailed your true colours to the mast eh Robin ? I suppose a human scavenger would only be capable of seeing the world from the viewpoint of a vulture – In as much as believing that every other creature is conniving to get a piece of the action.

You talk as though you are a lion but in reality you are way down the food chain, just below the jackals & slightly above the maggots. You will no doubt find your carcasses & will gobble them up in a frenzy, just in case the predators decide to return & maybe eat you too.

It’s no wonder you would find it hard to believe that some would rather die than join your disgusting feast, which unlike a real vulture’s meal, has no use other than the temporary filling of an insatiable belly & the adding of more shit to the world.

Maybe won’t help, but it helped me.
You seem a very dedicated guy, and are probably totally all-in, trying to help your family. With each day you will be more exhausted, and functioning less well.
Take a couple of hours off one evening. Go down the pub, or up a hill, or ride a bike. You will be re-charged and it won’t be a selfish act.

Actually Yakima I think it would be a Selfish act but I think that’s probably your point……if we don’t take care of, nurture and be true to the Self then we’re not much use to anybody.(just one example of the total corruption of language)
Best wishes from me too David

Trackbacks/Pingbacks

[...] A few quick thoughts to offer on who might be playing for what in Ukraine. First, most popular uprisings or protests get nowhere unless they get considerable outside help. For example Qatar supplied much of the help in the Arab Spring. In the Ukraine, it has been quite clear for a while now that the US has been in favor of a change of regime from pro-Russian to pro-Free market and agressively Ukrainain ethinc-nationalist. [...]

Featured Posts

Donate

If you don't have a lot please don't even think of donating. But if you are doing OK please could you consider a contribution to support the blog. Your donation will go to my PayPal account.
Either way please accept my thanks